KDT - Keyword Driven Testing

Has this ever happened to you?

An automation test tool vendor meets you for a presentation. The demonstration illustrates how testing can be executed virtually overnight without human intervention. Taking it one step further, a real script is recorded on your system. The conclusion of the presentation is a lucrative ROI plan that can save you most of your testing budget.

Wait, don`t pack your things yet.

Why does automated testing fail so often?

There are a number of reasons for this phenomenon. Automated testing is usually introduced as a way of saving time and money. However, the methodology used in most organizations, ultimately results in overlapping automated and manual testing. In addition, the use of specialized scripts requires a significant maintenance and modification effort with each version release. In extreme cases, this effort is greater than manual execution of the same tests. Lastly, technical problems stemming from poor automation infrastructure or user interface tool incompliancy often grind automation to a halt.

With all these problems, let`s revisit the reasons that drove us to consider automation in the first place.

• Quality - there are no human errors
• Quantity - automated testing can run a large number of tests in a short period of time
• More quantity - certain stress and load testing can only be executed with automation
• Efficiency - save on resources and testing staff
• Time - reduce the testing time by running simultaneous tests and overnight runs

When done right, automated testing delivers more for less.

Keyword Driven Testing

Keyword Driven Testing is a comprehensive, cross-organization test design solution that bridges the gap between the Test Automation team and the rest of the roles involved in the testing process. It allows both manual testers and other subject-matter experts to design, build and execute test automation scripts without any programming knowledge.

While most automation solutions rely on a dedicated automation engineers that convert manual tests to automated scripts and execute them, in Keyword Driven Testing, test automation is focused on building and maintaining the infrastructure. The same scripts, written by the testers and other domain knowledge experts, are used for both manual and automated tests. The testers themselves are responsible also for execution and analysis.

Keyword Driven Testing can be divided into two main layers:
The Infrastructure Layer is comprised of Utility Scripts and User Defined Functions. It is the engine that receives inputs (keywords) and performs operations on the tested application. The Logical Layer is used by testers and other subject matter experts to build and execute test automation scripts using pre-defined keywords.

Keyword Driven Testing utilizes a dictionary that provides the entire organization with a language for building test automation scripts. With the KDT approach test automation is fully aligned with the business processes.

Key Benefits

• Save time by combining the test automation and test documentation to a single effort.
• Improve test coverage by letting the testers to create the automated scripts, more tests are covered and misinterpretation of the manual tests is avoided
• Improve communication - between the teams by unifying the test planning language.
• Reduce cost - by having a centralized, multitier infrastructure.
• Easy to maintain - A single change in the application under test will require only a single change in the infrastructure comparing.